New glimpses through the veil of time
from Padraig to PDT Signs follow in blue after the original text from
Spirit Daily:

FROM THE MAIL to
SpiritDaily.com: IN THE DEPTHS OF PRISON DESPAIR, MARY CAME WITH LESSON
OF FAITH

The times we live in
are
fascinating, although they share much with periods in the past. As
always, there is that great divide between the spiritual and the
"worldly." The world continues to ignore signs from God (manifestations
of His love) while concentrating on politics, economics, technology,
and carnality (which in the current era goes by the name of Hollywood).
It's one reason we present what seem like examples of such
manifestations (few others do), while warning that these accounts must
be individually discerned. Exaggeration? It certainly can occur. There
may even be outright fabrications. Is it really a manifestation of
Mary on a window -- or just a coincidence of dew, or paint, or
defective glass?

We take the stand of
believing before disbelieving, and our viewers are always
sending us intriguing accounts, all of which we read. To report your
own, click here, especially accounts of encouragement.

Let's start with a
writer from Ireland.

"In 1981, when I was
26
years old, I was captured by the British Army and thrown into Crumlin
Road Jail, Belfast, in the North of Ireland," writes viewer Paradigm
Caughey. "At the time I was extremely bitter and full of hate, not
believing in God at all and very angry at the Catholic Church, which I
considered to be pro-British."

"The years of rage
and
violence during the ‘troubles’ had taken their toll on me and I was
increasingly suicidal. The only thing that stopped me from killing
myself at once was the knowledge that it would bring great pain to my
family.

"One night as I
entered
my cell I found a newspaper photo of Padre Pio bearing his stigmata
lying on the floor. I don’t know how it got there, as neither myself or
my cellmate were believers.

Anyway as I looked
at
the marks of the Passion on Padre Pio’s hands I thought, ‘The old man
did it with a screwdriver!’ But I wondered how he had never gotten
blood poisoning and had not been caught cheating over such a long life.

"That
night as I was going to sleep I said in despair, 'Padre Pio, go
to God, ask Him to prove to me He really exists in the space of one Hail
Mary, for if He doesn’t I will know for certain that He does not
exist and I can go ahead and...'
"As soon as I said ‘Hail
Mary,’ my eyes flooded with rivers of tears, for there standing at the
end of the bed in great glory was the Mother of God herself.
Extraordinary holiness, and beauty, and majesty, and motherliness and
love and kindness; indescribable!!

"She said, ‘Now
you
believe.' I could only nod and say, ‘Yes, I believe.’ Then she
said, ‘Faith without love is vain. You must forgive; do you forgive?”

"Then I saw before
me
picture forms of all who I had hated, while Mary’s voice gently kept
asking me, ‘Do you forgive, do you forgive, do you forgive, ...’ as
each one passed before me.
She then said, ‘Now is there anyone, anyone at all, to whom you
bear hatred?’

"There was no one; I
forgave them all; it was as though the weight of the universe was
lifted from my soul.

"For the first time
Mary
smiled, 'Now you have faith and now you loved; now you must
pray, for prayer is the food of faith. Pray, pray the Rosary,' and
she held a set of beads towards me.

"But
I was embarrassed and said, ‘I am sorry I have forgotten how to
say them.' Then Mary said with great firmness, ‘I myself will teach
you!' And she was gone.

Well anyway I
cannot tell the joy I felt; it was as though I was reborn. I
found it hard to say the rosary at first but then I came to love it.
Eventually
I ended up saying it all the time, the way Mary taught it was not at
all as we
prayed it as a child. It was slow and thoughtful.

When in prison I
wrote to my old Spiritual Director. Father Bernard and
after leaving prison I went down to see him. He said that I had entered
contemplative prayer and recommended that I enter a Monastery, which I
did for
a period of three and a half years. My prayer life there was intense,
following
the path that Our Lady had shown me. But to-wards the end of my time
there I
was thrown into a period of great inner darkness. It was as though God;
who had
come to mean everything to me had fled. This left me wondering if I had
done
something to offend God, or if I was imagining things, or if I was
going mad.

Fortunately
Father Bernard explained that this was the Dark Night of the
Soul which lasted for a period of some four years. My prayer life
deepened in
great darkness. Eventually the Dark Night
did not "end"; better to say that it became luminescent.

Anyway I went back
to my usual trade of taxi driving. At the same time doing
a degree in Psychology and diplomas in counselling.

Today I still
drive taxi. My love for God and His Mother is deeper than ever. But
it has changed profoundly

But
still I often revisit, in my heart that
night in prison many years ago, when Mary visited me. And my heart
takes fire!

I believe that
there is a veil between this side and the next. Most of us go
through life happily enough without truly ever seeing the veil torn or
lifted,
happy enough to see the glories of heaven through the eyes of faith.
This is
fair enough since as Christ Himself says, happy are those who have seen
and
believe yet even more happy are those who have not seen and believe.

A wide variety of
experiences may, however lift or tear this veil of faith,
sometimes forever and permit us to see or glimpse with startled eyes
the glory
and the terrors that lurk beyond. Experiences such as grave sickness,
intense
suffering and near
death experiences may be the roads to high graces in prayer, a vision
of
eternity, sudden revelation...

In
fact I suspect that there are few who have
not seen beyond the veil on more than one occasion even if they do not
realise
it, for we are surrounded as Saint Paul says with a great crowd of
witnesses on
every side and our poor Earth shivers and shakes with the glory of God.
It is,
simply that our western, scientific and materialistic culture has very
little
place for the mystical vision. We are afraid of being laughed at or
derided. So
even if we see, we see not, ...afraid of the consequences of sharing
our vision
with others.

I
would like to share a few things I have seen
behind the veil in the twenty odd years
since I saw the Mother of God in great glory in my prison cell.
These are
simply personal insights, I share them simply as a brother in Christ,
they are
not public revelations nor do I think the good God intended them to be.
But
time grows short. The spiritual battle around us grows daily more
intense and
if I can help even one sister or brother by sharing these lifting's of the veil I am very glad to do
so.

I had a dream. I
rose in spirit from my bed far high into the starry night
and looked down over my home City of Belfast, the tiny lights
glimmering below.
I heard a huge sound like a mighty explosion but as though the very
ground
itself was torn asunder from the very bowels of the earth. I
looked up the
Lough towards the sea. A great darkness rushed towards the city. Below
me the
lights winked out. A mighty wave had submerged the city.

The
city vision fades. I now stand in a great
Basilica crowded with people. High in the apse I see what I take to be
a
beautiful mosaic of Our Lady with the child Jesus in her arms. I float
high up
the Church and stand before Our Lady who gazes at me sadly. This dream
was
repeated many times.

In
dream I stood in a city street in London. I
look up and see what I take to be three stars falling to the earth.
Steam rises
from the ground, the pavement melts... All around me buildings explode.
The heat is
intense. All turns white. The dream ends. This dream was repeated many
times.

< style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">One night as I was
lying in bed praying the devil appeared. He seemed to be
like a darkish man of middle years. He exuded a great and terrible hate
and
rage. Though he talked relatively normally his every word seemed a
scream, so
great was his hate. I realised he had come to kill me. A bolt as though
of
electricity went through me but it was far worse than this, as though
every atom
in my being was being individually destroyed, my very soul itself being
destroyed. It stopped and an angel, I believe St Michael stood between
myself
and Satan. The devil said to him,
"Why do you bother with these cattle?", gesturing at me. >

Michael
raised his hand and they both
disappeared. I had this dream once.

Anyway I have a
sense of the signs of the times which I wish to share. A
very great battle is raging in heaven and upon earth between Our Lady
and
Satan. Both Mary and Lucifer travel the earth summoning their armies to
battle.
More and more there is no middle path between good and evil.
People must choose
sides. There can be no more drifting.

Both Mary and
Satan are often loci specific. By that I mean that Satan was
actually present with many of his court at Rwanda, at Serbia, at
Cambodia and
Mary is very often in Jerusalem and Italy.

On the side of
Satan he chooses particularly the great ones and powerful of
the earth as his own. So powerful has he become that more and more of
these
poor souls actually know consciously whom they serve and have readily
given
their souls to him. So they have become dwelling places of devils.

On the other hand
Mary has chosen the poor, the unknown, the needy and
despised. Each of these, Mary's children and Satan's army, will
more and more instantly
recognise each other as the tide of battles builds to a crescendo.

The Church is
about to endure a vast martyrdom, the greatest in history.
Only those who follow Mary faithfully will endure. The signs of the
elect are
as follows: Devotion to Mary and the Rosary.
A hunger for daily mass and the
Eucharist.
An abiding love for the rock of scripture.
A humble and regular
reception of the Sacrament of Confession.
A humble obedience to the teachings
of the Church.

In the end as the
war progresses there will be but one Church and one faith.
The world will be wracked by great wars, natural disasters (including
an impact
from the sky). Scourges of new diseases will afflict mankind. A pope
will be
martyred a great Pope will arise and declare the last Marian Dogmas.
Mary's
Immaculate Heart will triumph.

<>A new age for
the Church and the world will
dawn, cleansed and restored in holiness and the truth.